Floreana, 3/21/2022, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
Floreana was the first island in the Galapagos to be colonized by people. Ecuador took possession of the Galapagos Islands in 1832 and established a penal colony on Floreana Island. When Darwin visited the Galapagos in 1835, the second island he landed on was Floreana. During his stay on Floreana Island, Darwin met with some of the convicts and explored the highlands.
Salvador Cazar studied biology at the Universidad Nacional Del Sur, Bahía Blanca, in Argentina and at the Catholic University of Ecuador. Between 1988 and 1994, Salvador worked as a naturalist and tour leader for several national and international to...
Liza fell in love with the ocean as a child growing up on the
Ecuadorian coast. Her passion for storytelling and photography began at the age
of seven, when she began filming her friends as they recreated stories from her
parents' library. Liza later...
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Our day began at Urbina Bay on Isabela Island. As we crested the dunes of the black beach, not ten paces into our hike, we bumped into an Alcedo giant tortoise walking towards us. We watched as he turned into the bush, leaving the trail clear for us to continue with our hike. Not a bad start to our day! The rest of the hike continued in the same vein with more tortoises, large colorful land iguanas, and finches and mockingbirds flitting around the dense vegetation. Also of note were the yellow Cordia bushes which were in full bloom. Some of us even enjoyed a dip in the ocean before returning on board. We sailed a couple of hours to Tagus Cove on Isabela Island for an afternoon full of activity, including kayaking, snorkeling, and an invigorating hike up to see the panoramic view of Darwin Lake.
Today we awoke to the announcement that there were common dolphins near our ship. After breakfast, we went ashore to explore Fernandina Island, the youngest island in the archipelago and home to one of the largest aggregations of Galapagos marine iguanas. Following a great hike, we returned aboard and then went snorkeling with marine iguanas, penguins, and green sea turtles. In the afternoon, we explored the coast of Isabela Island and encountered Galapagos penguins, Galapagos flightless cormorants, and sea turtles. Later, we crossed the equatorial line while enjoying a great sunset.
We started our first full day of exploration with a wonderful sunrise and perfect weather conditions. In the morning we went ashore to stroll along the trail of North Seymour, and with every step we found a different animal. First we saw the swallow-tailed gulls nesting, then sea lions, marine iguanas, land iguanas, and many frigatebirds nesting on the trees. Some male frigatebirds were displaying their ritual to attract the females, which consists of inflating their red gular sacs, then spreading and shaking their wings while making some rattling sounds. In the afternoon we had a great time snorkeling at Rábida Island, and later walking along an astonishing red beach with colonies of sea lions. Behind the shoreline we saw a flock of pinkish flamingoes nesting at the edge of a brackish water lagoon, while others were feeding on mollusks and microscopic shrimp. The sunset on the horizon was the icing on the cake for such a spectacular day of fun in the paradisiacal Galapagos.
